When voters know next to nothing about a candidate, they tend to fill in all the blanks by assuming the candidate agrees with them on just about everything ... kind of like going on a first date, before you discover all the deal-breakers. You might think you're supporting a candidate who exclusively wants to be your country's president, then find out later that he's actually more interested in an open presidency, where he might go and be president of one or more other countries because he's a free spirit and doesn't want to be tied down.
As far as we know, Johnson is a one-country sort of president, but what else do we know about him? In today's FTR, we put the candidates' stances side-by-side, then we try to find a psychic president-guessing octopus to tell us who's going to win the Oval Office. Let's go:
Let's take Gary Johnson on a speed date
Should we get to know Libertarian front-runner Gary Johnson a little bit more? FiveThirtyEight thinks so, based on a Morning Consult poll that shows Johnson pulling 10 percent when pitted against both Clinton (38 percent) and Trump (35). What do we know about this guy? For starters, he already called Donald Trump a [vulgar, sexist slur], so he's clearly ready for a general-election insult-off with Trump, the Barry Bonds of presidential campaign insults. Where else does he stand on the issues vis-à-vis the other two?
TERRORISM
Johnson: Strike back if we're attacked, but forget the nation-building
Clinton: More airstrikes on ISIS; more collaboration with other countries
Trump: Temporary entry ban on Muslims; attack ISIS; take their oil
TAXES:
Johnson: Abolish taxes on income, capital gains and payroll; institute national sales tax
Clinton: Cut taxes for the middle class; raise taxes on the rich
Trump: Cut taxes for the middle class; eliminate loopholes; raise taxes on the rich
HEALTH CARE
Johnson: Obamacare will wreck the economy; Medicare should be cut
Clinton: Keep Obamacare; take on insurance and pharmaceutical companies
Trump: Repeal Obamacare; increase competition in insurance and pharmaceutical markets; require price transparency
IMMIGRATION
Johnson: Make it easier for immigrants to get a work visa; create a pathway to citizenship
Clinton: Create a pathway to citizenship; pass the DREAM Act; increase enforcement
Trump: Walls of increasing height
The Libertarian Party convention is this weekend in Orlando.
If we knew now, we could all just tune out for the rest of the summer
Forget the pollsters, we want football teams and cookie recipes to tell us who's going to win the White House. Right now, we don't have much to go on. Hillary has collected the most votes during the primary season by dint of having fewer opponents to fight for votes, but the top primary vote-getter has lost six out of the last ten general elections. Other prediction methods with decent track records: The Family Circle Presidential Cookie Recipe Contest (Bill Clinton wisely excluded raisins from his oatmeal cookies in 2008); the "did the Washington Redskins win their most recent home game" method (a win on Oct. 16 vs. the Philadelphia Eagles is good news for the incumbent party) and candidate height (advantage: Trump).
If you're looking for something more grounded in data, Moody's Analytics — which has predicted the outcome of every presidential election since 1980 — is calling the election for Clinton based on current economic numbers. If the economy tanks over the next few months, it would be to Trump's advantage, according to the model.
Bernie: I should have been in that side-by-side comparison up there
Bernie Sanders' two-step plan to claim Democratic nomination: 1) go into the convention on a win streak, and 2) flip a bunch of superdelegates because of that win streak. A victory in Kentucky last week would have given him three contests in a row with nine to go, but he narrowly lost to Clinton by fewer than 2,000 votes (out of 450,000-plus votes cast). Yesterday, he asked for Kentucky to recanvass the vote totals — essentially, he's asking for each of the 120 counties to check totals from voting machines and absentee ballots without recounting individual ballots. Why not ask for a full recount? His campaign would have to pay for it. Because the Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally in all states, at best Bernie would be able to move one candidate from Hillary's column to his ... but he'd also be able to keep the win streak alive.
More from the campaign trail
- Hillary pretending like she didn't see that Evite for the debate (USA TODAY OnPolitics)
- No matter what, Bernie has the ability to name one-third of the Dems' platform committee (USA TODAY)
- Everyone's dying to share their political views this year (Detroit Free Press)
- Fact Check: Trump didn't heap praise on Kim Jong Un, unless you really stretch the definitions of 'heap,' 'praise,' and 'on' (USA TODAY)
- Ted Nugent supports Trump's Muslim ban; we're not sure, but he may also want to ban Dalmatians (Louisville Courier-Journal)
- Scott Walker is $900,000 in debt after picking up 0 votes during his presidential campaign. But he made a lot of memories, which are priceless (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
- Unlike Trump and Johnson, Clinton really DOES agree with you on everything (The Onion)
British guy mocks American democratic process
But yes, our nominee selection process sucks.
